There's something comforting about Italian food. It's simple, the same rotation of ingredients making their way in and out of different dishes. It's savory with loads of stringy mozzarella and creamy ricotta, and man, is it filling.
Even so, it's easy to mess up. Italian cuisine is a labor of love and its gotta show for your food to really shine above the rest. In the case of Osteria Natalina in South Tampa, they do just that.
Consistently ranked as one of the best Italian restaurants in Tampa, Osteria Natalina is a casual Italian eatery and the brainchild of Spartaco Giolito, a professional chef taught at the Restaurant Hotel School in Italy. He aimed to bring the culinary flavors of his hometown, Rimmi, Italy to the Tampa Bay area and has largely succeeded.
Osteria Natalina is consistently ranked as one of the best, not only Italian, but just general restaurants in Tampa. Giolito and the restaurant have even been featured in the newspaper of his hometown in Italy. If you're getting press from across the world in the region your food replicates, you're definitely doing something right.
So, what makes it so good? Just take a look at the menu, a veritable schmorgasboard of fresh, from-scratch, and mouthwatering Italian classics. Start off with a little l'insalata di calamari with calamari, garlic oil, and lemon or polenta e pesca with seafood ragu.
Osteria Natalina's entrees are second to none. Highlights include home made lasagna, linguini with sausage and an assortment of off-the-coast seafood dishes popular in Rimmi, Italy. Some of these include lobster and ricotta cheese-stuffed ravioli, snapper filet with pine nuts, eggplant, anchovies, and white wine, and lightly breaded then grilled shrimp and scallops.
If you find yourself drooling over the keyboard at this point, then head out to Osteria Natalina and see what they're all about. Already been? Rate and review them on their business listing here on 813area.com.
